3 Ways to Keep You on Track to Reach Your 2018 New Year's Resolutions

Remember January 1st 2018 when you woke up all excited about a new year gleaming with new opportunities? You couldn't wait to start setting new goals (despite a possible hangover!).

"This is going to be the year I will finally [insert health desires here]."

Perhaps you envisioned yourself with no more migraines, no more pain, or increased energy.

And you set goals to eat better, exercise more, settle into a morning meditation routine, or maybe a journaling ritual to enhance your life.

You sat down and wrote out exactly what you wanted to accomplish. Maybe you even added it to your vision board or wrote it on a sticky note where you see it daily.

Now, that it's the middle of February, let's do a check in.

How is your motivation in working towards your end goals?

Are you doing the things necessary everyday to reach them?

If you have successfully kept up with these habits and are close to reaching your goals, great job! Here is an applause for you! (Thanks, Lady Gaga for being in my head whenever I say "applause"). "I live for the applause, applause, applause..."

This is about the time of year where many start losing their motivation on these resolutions or goals in which they set for themselves.

Here are 3 steps you can take to ensure you end 2018 as a healthier you!

1. What sets apart those that reach their goals vs those that don't? Intrinsic motivation.

Having strong intrinsic motivation is a necessity for achieving what we desire. This is your "why."

For example, your doctor tells you, "You really must eat better to get this cholesterol down." If you don't intrinsically want to, then your only motivation to improve your cholesterol is extrinsic because your doctor told you to do so.

An intrinsic motivation in this scenario is to think to yourself, "Wow. If I want to live a long healthy life to see my grandchildren grow up one day, then I better start eating better."

Your strong desire to be there for your family is your intrinsic motivation.

A father who stops smoking so he can walk his daughters down the isle. My dad can check this off his list because he quit smoking when we were teenagers and he was there for both my sister and I.

So what is your intrinsic motivation for reaching your end result?

And how can you work towards it everyday?

2. Set SMART Goals vs Resolving to Do or Not Do.

Remember, a resolution is a determined decision to do or not do. And that's not always so easy to follow through with.

Goals on the other hand provide us an opportunity to get to an end result or a transformation by the use of small goals every day, every week, and every month, until we arrive at the end point.

Specific- The more detailed, the better. Describe the who, what, why, which.

Measurable- How will you know when you've reached it?

Attainable- Assess where you're at now and where you think you could be by the methods you're using.

Relevant- What will this do for you? How does it meet your needs?

Time-bound- In High Performance Habits: How Extraordinary People Become That Way by Brendon Burchard, he talks about how having a deadline makes us much more inclined to complete the task at hand.

It starts with clearly writing out your end goal. Work backwards from there. Create monthly goals- that are specific and measurable- then weekly goals to daily goals. And do these things everyday. Work at creating these new habits everyday.

These small goals must originate from your "why." And this "why" must mean a great deal to you.

Unless you set those goals to make small changes everyday, create new daily habits, and work towards your ideal end result everyday, it is unlikely that you will reach that end result (but not impossible). And the only result would be setting the same resolution for 2019.

3. Utilize Your Powerful Imagination.

You're undoubtedly familiar with the Law of Attraction's theory on how like attracts like. It's our imagination that can help us feel and see in our mind's eye our end result. If we don't create it in our imaginations first, we can't create it at all.

Add this to your meditation routine or at the end of a qigong or yoga session. The idea here is to be in a grounded, present, and internal state when you imagine yourself as you wish to be, do, have or feel.

Also, follow Dr. Wayne Dyer's recommendation in Wishes Fulfilled: Mastering The Art of Manifesting to do this right before you go to sleep. This way, picturing yourself having, being, feeling, or accomplishing what you want is the last thing your conscious mind sees before drifting off to sleep. Dyer describes this is a great way to embed your desires into your subconscious mind.

If you follow these 3 steps, I know you will end 2018 healthier, more grounded, and more fulfilled. And remember, you are capable of AMAZING things.